How many escalators are there in the world?
Nobody publishes an authoritative global escalator count, and estimates cluster loosely around a million units including moving walkways. China dominates the new-installation market as thoroughly as it does lifts. Individual figures are far better known: the Washington Metro has 618 escalators, the most of any transit system in the Western Hemisphere, while the New York City Subway — vastly larger — has around 230, because it was built before escalators were standard. The London Underground has about 450.
How the figure is arrived at
Aggregating national registration data where escalators fall under the same special-equipment inspection regimes as lifts, plus manufacturer service portfolios. The result is much softer than the elevator figure because escalators are far more concentrated in transport and retail, and those owners are not consistently surveyed.
How confident it is
- Low estimate
- 700,000
- High estimate
- 1,500,000
- Spread
- 2.1× between the bounds
Other things people built counts
- How many countries are there in the world? 195 — or 193, or 206, or 249, depending on who is counting
- How many cars are there in the world? about 1.5 billion motor vehicles
- How many planes are in the air right now? roughly 10,000 to 20,000 at any moment
- How many languages are there in the world? about 7,150 living languages
- How many McDonald's are there? about 43,000 in over 100 countries
- How many phones are there in the world? about 8.9 billion mobile connections — more than there are people
- How many nuclear weapons are there? about 12,200 warheads
- How many websites are there? about 1.1 billion hostnames — but only around 200 million active
- How many books have ever been published? about 130 million as of 2010 — probably over 200 million now
- How many airports are there in the world? about 45,000 with runways — but only around 4,000 with scheduled airline service
- How many ATMs are there in the world? about 3 million
- How many cities are there in the world? about 10,000 with over 50,000 people; 33 megacities over 10 million
- How many buildings are there in the world? somewhere between 1.5 and 4 billion
- How many computers are there in the world? roughly 2 billion personal computers in use
Common questions
- How many escalators are there in the world?
- roughly one million
- How is that estimated?
- Aggregating national registration data where escalators fall under the same special-equipment inspection regimes as lifts, plus manufacturer service portfolios. The result is much softer than the elevator figure because escalators are far more concentrated in transport and retail, and those owners are not consistently surveyed.
Related pages
- How many countries are there in the world? 195 — or 193, or 206, or 249, depending on who is counting
- How many cars are there in the world? about 1.5 billion motor vehicles
- How many planes are in the air right now? roughly 10,000 to 20,000 at any moment
- How many languages are there in the world? about 7,150 living languages
- How many McDonald's are there? about 43,000 in over 100 countries
- How many phones are there in the world? about 8.9 billion mobile connections — more than there are people
- How many nuclear weapons are there? about 12,200 warheads
- How many websites are there? about 1.1 billion hostnames — but only around 200 million active
- How many people are there in the world? Living things and the natural world
- How many stars are there in the universe? Space and the universe
- How many bones are in the human body? The human body
- How many grains of sand are there on Earth? Living things and the natural world
- How many ants are there in the world? Living things and the natural world
- How many trees are there in the world? Living things and the natural world
Sources
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place